History

Nothing is known of the petty criminal who eventually
became known as the Fool. A petty thief, he was serving time in Gotham
Prison and widely regarded as feeble-minded. One night in 1947, he concocted
the idea that he could blow a bubble of sufficient strength to carry his
weight and float over the prison walls. Succeeding, he took up the idea
that he could succeed if the crimes seemed too foolish or too obvious.
Crafted a dunce-capped costume for himself, the Fool confronted Green Lantern
at a new WXYZ radio program "Money For Nothing". The show offered charity
money for worthless objects and the Fool learned that a priceless violin
had inadvertently been thrown into the garbage and was scheduled to be
offered. Stealing the seemingly worthless instrument, the Fool started
a crime wave of stealing the bizarre. His second theft, a wooden carousel
horse, led the Green Lantern to his hideout, where the hero was captured
and placed in a dart laden death trap. After his escape, Green Lantern
related his trials to a local Crime Club, a group of amateur sleuths. The
Fool, caught up in the publicity of his own crime wave, impersonated the
President of the club and inadvertently gave himself away during the re-telling.
He was summarily returned to Gotham Prison (Green Lantern #28).
The Fool was not long for prison however and soon
escaped. Learning of a publicity campaign for Pop-Jacks candy ( a candy
treat with a prize inside) in which real diamonds were included, the Fool
stole a number of candy boxes to cover the theft of the entire run of diamonds.
His racket was worked out by neophyte reporter, Ann Martin, who confronted
the Fool. The Fool captured the columnists and when Green Lantern attempted
to rescue her, he was likewise captured. The two were placed in a bizarre
trap composed on toy train railings, but easily escaped. After the Fool
committed the theft of some beauty pagent jewelry, he was promptly returned
to prison (Green Lantern #31). On April Fool's Day of 1948, the
Fool broke prison again. This time the eccentric criminal staged a series
of odd thefts of hats. Following up on the theft of the expensive Duket
Painting by the Lippy gang, the Fool was informed that the art work was
cut into thirds and hidden in hats. The Fool's thefts of hatwear covered
his true goal of intercepting the painting from the Lippy Gang. He was
foiled by Green Lantern who deduced his plan (Comic Cavalcade #27).

The activities of the Fool since 1948 have not been
recorded Whether he survived into the 21st century is a only subject of
speculation.

Powers and Skills: The Fool had no super-powers but had
an ample supply of toy and gag based weaponry. Behind his seemingly erratic
behavior was actually a clever tactical mind laboring on the thesis that
you can fool some of the people, most of the time. Enough at least, to
rob them blind.

Weaknesses and Limitations: The Fool, bereft of his hardware,
was a poor hand-to-hand combatant and easily apprehended.